After his colleagues Donn Roach and Jose De Paulo combined for 10 scoreless innings in their previous outings, Smith followed suit allowing three hits in six shutout innings of a 7-1 victory over Tulsa in his Double-A debut Saturday night at Wolff Stadium.

Although the Missions' bullpen surrendered a run in the eighth, it didn't hurt because Smith kept the Drillers quiet.

In addition, the run production that was absent during Friday's 2-1 13-inning loss, showed up with a 14-hit output to help the Missions clinch the three-game set.

“The pitching staff is obviously very good,” Missions' manager Rich Dauer said. “Their control has been great. They all have out pitches and they're getting ahead in the count. The catchers (Rocky Gale, Eddy Rodriguez) are doing a great job of calling the game.”

With the exception of a jam in the fifth inning when Tulsa put runners on first and third with two outs, Smith (1-0) was in complete control.

The right-hander from Tyler struck out five batters with one walk and recorded 11 groundouts while throwing 59 of his 83 pitches for strikes.

“I tried to get the first pitch for a strike and stay ahead of batters,” Smith said. “Everything was working. I kept the ball down and let the defense do the work.

“That takes a lot of pressure off me.”

Tommy Medica, who went 0 for 5 the previous night, gave the Missions their first home run of the season with a towering blast over the left field fence in the second inning off Tulsa starter Chad Bettis (0-1). He followed with an RBI double during the Missions' two-run rally in the third.

“When you have a tough game like (Friday) it was nice to get a few runs early and see them keep coming,” Medica said. “It felt good getting that first (homer) out. If we can keep putting up runs like this, it's going to make the season a lot easier.”

The Missions added runs in the fourth and sixth innings on RBI singles from Chris Bisson and Gale.